Welcome to the group discussion lesson on chapter 5 of the book, “Suffering and the Sovereignty of God.” This chapter is written by Stephen F Saint. To expound on what Stephen F Saint writes in the chapter, we’re going to use John 9 as an example of how our suffering can lead us to our mission field.
A little about Stephen F Saint. He is the son of Nathan Saint, the missionary pilot who was murdered by an indigenous Ecuadorean tribe called the Waodani while trying to spread the gospel. He was actually murdered by a man in the tribe that he had befriended and trusted. If losing a father at a very young age wasn’t enough. Stephen F Saint also lost his only daughter to a brain hemorrhage at her welcome back home party.
This man’s loss is incredible. I don’t know that I would have been able to recover like him. But he does and the reason he recovers is because he was able to use that suffering as his mission field to minister to others who have suffered like he has.
Today I want to present four ways suffering gives us a pathway toward God’s ordained mission work.
Everybody suffers
Everybody suffers. That is just truth. Suffering is part of being human. Suffering does not discriminate between socio-economics, race, or geography. What people of various socio-economic classes, races, or geographies consider “suffering” may differ, but nonetheless, the effect of suffering is all the same: mental and emotional anguish and pain whether perceived or physical.
Well I didn’t state anything beside the obvious. The real question is: if everybody suffers, then how is it a pathway toward God’s ordained mission work? Since everybody suffers, you now have affinities with people who have suffered like you or suffered with you. There is commonality, a language that you can speak because of your experience with suffering. You now have a toolkit because of your suffering.
I know it’s not the toolkit you wanted, but it’s definitely the toolkit you have in your possession now.
Suffering allows God to minister to me
The second way suffering gives us a pathway toward God’s ordained mission work is by allowing us to experience the power of God’s ministry to us. John 9 shows us from the onset of the story that this blind man suffered so that God can minister to him in a powerful way.
As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. And his disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.
John 9:1-3 ESV
The day after my dad passed away brother and I were sitting outside his home looking at the desert in Las Cruces, New Mexico and that’s when my dad’s neighbors stopped by to offer their condolences and share with us the amazing work that he had been doing right up to his death. The testimony these neighbors shared gave us the encouragement that our father’s death, although untimely, was not in vain. He died doing what he loved to do. Without suffering the loss of our father, God would not have ministered to my brother and me to give us hope that our lives had purpose.
Suffering gives me a perspective
The third way suffering gives us a pathway toward God’s ordained mission work is by giving us a perspective.
A perspective is a viewpoint colored by experience. Perspective is not an opinion. Perspective is the result of reframing a situation (suffering) and a method on how we move forward. Look at John 9:17:
So they said again to the blind man, “What do you say about him, since he has opened your eyes?” He said, “He is a prophet.”
John 9:17 ESV
The formerly blind man’s experience with blindness, had him suffer the injustices of living in a society where disabilities were viewed as a curse from God. But since this experience, he clearly had a perspective to share. He tells the Pharisees that Jesus is a prophet. The blind man continues in the chapter to meet Jesus again and worships God himself, and not just the idea of God.
Suffering allows me to share what God did for me
Lastly, suffering allows us to share what God did for us. Lets go back to John 9. We’re going to jump into the story at verse 25.
He answered, “Whether he is a sinner I do not know. One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.”
John 9:25 ESV
This is how you work in your mission field — you share what and how God ministered and is ministering to you in your suffering. That is how God ministers to others through you. I can tell you that if people did not minister to me in the wake of my father’s death, I most likely would not have decided to go into pastoral ministry. God’s hand was in shaping me as a young man who was suffering. That is why I am able to share what God did for me in my suffering.
Conclusion
If everybody suffers and that gives us affinities with others who suffers, then understand that your suffering is not in vain. God is ministering to you in your suffering. He wants you to open yourself up to him so that he could minister to you. He wants you to suffer, not in vain, but to suffer well and have a perspective that only comes from being ministered to. The reason he wants that for you and me is because he knows that it gives us a testimony we can share that brings him glory. Our mission may not be exotic, far, or even dangerous. But rest assured that our mission will leverage our experiences with suffering.
Prayer: Father, we suffered or are suffering. Help us take those experiences and leverage it toward the mission you give us for your people who are in similar situations. Lord, we want to ask that you give us the grace and mercy to speak with perspective and share how you minister to us in our times of suffering. Please allow us to minister to others through these hardships. We pray this in Jesus name. Amen.
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